Abano Terme, Italy. Recomposition design hypotheses in the historic town

This paper focuses on the historic town of Abano Terme located 10 kilometres south-west of Padua at the foot of the Euganean Hills. Once a small rural hamlet of poor houses arranged around the church, Abano Terme has grown significantly since World War 2 because of the natural thermal spa waters that flow from springs and has become the first place in Italy for thermal tourism. The historic parts of Abano then begun to decline while many high-rise hotels have been built near the thermal spring generating a new spa town for tourists. This article reports the teaching experience on the Architectural and Urban Composition 2 course at the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Padua. The theme of the spatial aspects of public spaces in neglected historic Abano was specifically investigated by students looking to redesign the lost unity of the early settlement by progressing from a study of how Abano has evolved through time. The method adopted to enhance the historic town is based on research of the local physical specificity while always retaining the urban morphology in memory of the community and in its image. Awareness of the spatial structure that linked the church, the town hall, and a few other old buildings together, derived from the study of the history of the place, facilitates the coherent design of new public spaces and new building types. Planning new buildings starts from understanding the urban environment, that is, its overall physical structure, and this is especially so in the historic city centre.